The Saturday 7

1. Oh hey, guess what? The stay-at-home order got extended again! The original order went into effect on March 23, which means we have been "sheltering in place" for 47 days. And we still have 19 days to go of this one. At least until it gets extended again. 😭😭😭

 I've seen so many people talking about de-stashing their houses and counting down the days 'til Goodwill is accepting donations again. Meanwhile, I'm getting practically giddy thinking of all the new treasures to be found when the store opens for shopping!!! I miss thrift shopping so much!!

2. This was my first week with Ruby 4 days a week (for real this time). I really need to go to bed earlier now that I'm getting up so early. That was the hardest part. Other than that, she's a peach and we all love her so much. We had some really nice weather this week and Ruby adores being outside. We also discovered that she's obsessed with the trampoline. I'm so thankful that our tramp has a net enclosure. I can put her in there with one of my kids and sit in my chair in the sun without worrying about her falling off. Haha.

Thankful for such good helpers

Seriously - look at that face!! 😍

3. We [mostly] finished school this week! Lena's all done. Lucy procrastinated and didn't realize how much work she still has. She kept saying, "I just have Bible to do." What she didn't realize was that she had like 25 pages of Bible to do. 🤦 She got a good chunk done. She just has 7 more pages, a test, and three memory verses. And then she will be a 5th grader! 🤯🤯🤯 I'm counting my blessings that private schools don't have to comply with the state mandates for education. The poor public school kids (and their poor, poor parents) still have 4 weeks of online learning to do to meet the requirements. We're not slacking off at the Christian school. We continued with the curriculum at home from day one of the school closure. So the kids have stayed on track, and by cutting out specials and the like, we were able to zoom through the rest of the year's work. I need to have the girls take a "last day of school" picture to document what a weird year it's been. Their original "first day of school" pic was in mid August when we started homeschooling. Then we did another "first day of school" pic when they started at ACS in mid September. And now we're ending the year at the beginning of May at home. Whaaaaat?

4. Justin and I finished Poldark last night. The final episode was a little anticlimactic, but I looked up the books its based on and found out there are 12! And all of them are available through the library electronically! I'm excited to read the more in-depth version.

5. The first four seasons of Poldark were available on Amazon Prime, but the 5th required a PBS Masterpiece subscription. Of course, they offered a 7 day free trial, so I jumped on that. I've actually signed up for a few free trials lately. The Adventures in Odyssey club was offering a 60 day free trial, the Noggin Roku channel (Paw Patrol, Dora, Blaze) offered 90 days. I even signed up for a free trial of Audible because the girls love listening to audio books at night. The problem is . . . other than PBS, I don't remember when I signed up for these trials or when the "trial" portion will expire and I'll have to start paying for it . . . which is exactly why companies offer them in the first place. 🤦 #irresponsible

6. I've been reading up a storm lately - nothing very noteworthy, just entertaining drivel. But I was given a couple books by others recently that I read this week. The first is Anne Bogel's "I'd Rather Be Reading." She's the creator of the Modern Mrs. Darcy blog which I've followed for a while, but I've never actually read her books. It was short and sweet, and I identified with most of it. When she was first married, she lived next door to the library and visited multiple times a day. Wouldn't that be awesome?! I haven't been to the library in over 47 days . . .

This was one of my favorite parts of the book:

If you know my dad, you know that he lives by this. When we first moved into our house, Justin was concerned about remodeling the bathroom, and fixing the broken trim. I was concerned about having enough bookshelves. 💖

I also read Finding Chika by Mitch Albom. Justin's dad has been reading a lot while he's been off work, and he always tries to pass his books on to me. We have very different tastes, though. One book he gave me was about demonic oppression. I took a hard pass on that. But he insisted that I would love Finding Chika.  I specifically asked him if it was going to make me cry. I hate sad books. I hate having my emotions manipulated. I'm too empathetic and can't even handle sad fiction. I knew this was a true story and doubted Dave's assertions that I'd love it. But I read it anyway. And I was RIGHT!!! It was a stupid sad book that tugged at my heartstrings and made me stinkin' cry! Thanks a lot, Dave! That's the last time I trust your book recommendations!

7. And now for pictures:

The three of them played with this kinetic sand for almost an hour! They never play together nicely for that long!!

Found in our backyard!

This is what my eyebrows are going to look like if salons don't open back up soon . . .(Hopefully my teeth won't suffer the same fate without the dentist!)

Loving all my baby snuggles.